Mississippi State did not exactly have the best start to their game this past weekend as Houston took the opening drive of the game down the field and scored.

But the Bulldogs then went on a 40-3 scoring run to come away with the win and improved their overall record to 4-2 on the season. Head coach Dan Mullen was was proud of the way his team stuck with the game plan and did not panic after the opening score.

"I'm pretty pleased with the performance of our team (Saturday) night," Mullen said. "We came out and played in a tough road environment against a team that had an 18-game home winning streak. They came out and scored right away but everybody stuck together and followed the plan. We played solid defense and the offense did a good job controlling the clock and keeping our defense off the field against a high powered team. We ran the football and controlled the time of possession. I'm pleased with how our team responded after giving up that opening score. We outscored them 40-3 after giving up that opening touchdown."

Junior running back Vick Ballard had a strong night for MSU on the ground rushing 14 times for 134 yards and three touchdowns. He now has 12 scores on the season which tops the Southeastern Conference and puts him into a second place tie nationally.

"He had a nice game," Mullen said of Ballard. "What I saw Vick do is make the nice runs that were there but also create on his own by breaking tackles and making some people miss. He was turning kind of a regular run into a longer run. I think you are seeing him getting more and more comfortable in our offense now. When you have that comfort you see them trusting it and hitting the holes on plays he is supposed to and creating in the opening field when he has to."

In all the Bulldogs totaled 409 yards rushing against Houston, the most by State since 1992 against Arkansas State.